An Irish renewable energy company called Mainstream Renewable Power has announced it is to begin work on eight new solar and wind projects to the tune of €3.1bn in four continents.

Headed by Eddie O’Connor, the company will begin work on the eight utility-scale projects which are to reach financial close and begin construction works later this year.

The company is one of the largest suppliers of renewable energy in the world, already providing 19GW of energy, and plans to add another 1,000MW with the new project.

As part of its plans, Mainstream Renewable Power intends to create new plants in Chile, Canada, Scotland, and South Africa, where it has already established significant projects to date.

The largest of the eight new projects will be established in Scotland, with a 450MW wind farm off the coast of Fife that is expected to start generating renewable electricity from 2017.

Three further projects with a combined capacity of 360MW will begin construction this year in a partnership with Globeleq, one of Africa’s largest energy companies.

O’Connor said the company is entering a very intensive growth phase.

"To put this into context, we are about to start building more megawatts than ESB ever put into construction in Ireland in a single year," O'Connor said. "We put almost 300 megawatts into construction last year and we have an even larger portfolio of late-stage projects ready to go into construction next year.”

Mainstream Renewable Power has previously worked with the Irish and UK governments as part of the Energy Bridge project launched in 2008, which exports off-shore and on-shore energy from Ireland to the UK.